Who's Who in the V:TES Community

Vital Statistics:

Name:
Year of Birth:
Occupation:
Other Games Played:
Number of Cards owned:
Number of Decks ready to play:
Play in:

Frederick Scott
1958
Software Engineer
Magic (though not recently)
No clue
normally around 2 dozen
Phoenix, AZ, USA

Q1: How (and when) did you begin your career as a VTES-player? Who introduced you to the game? Where did you play originally?
I began playing Jyhad in 1994. I was an early prolific Magic tournament player and bought a box when it first came out. I hardly played in the first few years, however, as I was frustrated at learning how strategy worked. I was a "now-and-then" contributor to the newsgroup for a couple of years, getting into arguments from time to time with early luminaries like Curt Adams. I dropped out entirely for two or three years after Wizards changed the card backs, refusing to buy any new cards. A while after Wizards declared their intent to drop the game, I finally broke down and began buying mail order boxes of the expansions, rationalizing that my purchases couldn't possibly bring WotC any profit at that point.

I played in and around San Jose, California both before and after my self-imposed exile. Afterward, I helped formed the basis of the now-robust San Fransico Bay Area VTES group with three other guys: the net personality known as Curvei, Eric Pettersen (no longer plays but contributed to the newsgroup sporatically up until a couple years ago), and a guy named Andrew Hart who was never terribly serious about VtES but enjoyed the company.

I moved to Phoenix, AZ two years ago and am working at trying to do more good than harm to revive the local, barely-stirring corpse of a VTES group.

Q2: Which of the Sets and Expansions to VTES is your favorite, and why is it your top choice?
I couldn't answer that. They all have some good in them and I couldn't possibly pick a favorite.

Q3: What is your favorite deck to play, and why?
A few years ago, it would have been my fortitude babies deck, especially after I reconstituted it with all Sabbat vampires to take advantage of Hungry Coyote hunt-n-Tribute bloating. It was never very successful in tournaments but it seemed to keep me in games longer and more reliably than almost anything else I did. And it was always a threat to win big if my predator and prey weren't careful to prevent me from building up minions over time. It's gone now, a victim of the new version of The Embrace so it's probably not worth looking at.

Q4: If you could add something to the game, what would it be?
Clarity. Consistent, well-understood card text that you don't need to check a "rulings" document to understand (at least, not nearly as often). Things like calling a titled independent vampire "TITLED" right on the card where everyone can see it, touches like that.

Q5: What do you do to help promote the game / why are you in this list of people?
I'm basically on this list because I'm an overblown, pontificating, windbag who has doesn't have enough of a life to resist arguing with anything I see posted on the newsgroup which doesn't please me, however baseless my own opinions may be. Thus, I believe I've been chosen due to pure volume of lines spewed. If I could figure out how to get paid for it, I'd probably be rich.

Q6: What is your favorite deck style for casual play / tournament play?
In the past, it's usually been anything based on vampires creating Embraced, Third Traditions, Creation Rites, Allies, and the like and using said creations to slowly overwhelm. Due to the change to The Embrace, that will likely change in the future, at least somewhat. I otherwise have few biases about strategy except for a general distaste for decks based on complicated combat tactics.

Q7: Is there a difference between your casual play and tournament play?
Only in one respect: I avoid the unproven in tournament play. Otherwise, I play for the same reasons and go for the same results either way.

Back to the index of Who's Who in V:TES.

Q1: How (and when) did you begin your career as a VTES-player? Who introduced you to the game? Where did you play originally? I began playing Jyhad in 1994. I was an early prolific Magic tournament player and bought a box when it first came out. I hardly played in the first few years, however, as I was frustrated at learning how strategy worked. I was a "now-and-then" contributor to the newsgroup for a couple of years, getting into arguments from time to time with early luminaries like Curt Adams. I dropped out entirely for two or three years after Wizards changed the card backs, refusing to buy any new cards. A while after Wizards declared their intent to drop the game, I finally broke down and began buying mail order boxes of the expansions, rationalizing that my purchases couldn't possibly bring WotC any profit at that point. I played in and around San Jose, California both before and after my self-imposed exile. Afterward, I helped formed the basis of the now-robust San Fransico Bay Area VTES group with three other guys: the net personality known as Curvei, Eric Pettersen (no longer plays but contributed to the newsgroup sporatically up until a couple years ago), and a guy named Andrew Hart who was never terribly serious about VtES but enjoyed the company. I moved to Phoenix, AZ two years ago and am working at trying to do more good than harm to revive the local, barely-stirring corpse of a VTES group.	Q2: Which of the Sets and Expansions to VTES is your favorite, and why is it your top choice? I couldn't answer that. They all have some good in them and I couldn't possibly pick a favorite.
Q3: What is your favorite deck to play, and why? A few years ago, it would have been my fortitude babies deck, especially after I reconstituted it with all Sabbat vampires to take advantage of Hungry Coyote hunt-n-Tribute bloating. It was never very successful in tournaments but it seemed to keep me in games longer and more reliably than almost anything else I did. And it was always a threat to win big if my predator and prey weren't careful to prevent me from building up minions over time. It's gone now, a victim of the new version of The Embrace so it's probably not worth looking at.	Q4: If you could add something to the game, what would it be? Clarity. Consistent, well-understood card text that you don't need to check a "rulings" document to understand (at least, not nearly as often). Things like calling a titled independent vampire "TITLED" right on the card where everyone can see it, touches like that.
Q5: What do you do to help promote the game / why are you in this list of people? I'm basically on this list because I'm an overblown, pontificating, windbag who has doesn't have enough of a life to resist arguing with anything I see posted on the newsgroup which doesn't please me, however baseless my own opinions may be. Thus, I believe I've been chosen due to pure volume of lines spewed. If I could figure out how to get paid for it, I'd probably be rich.	Q6: What is your favorite deck style for casual play / tournament play? In the past, it's usually been anything based on vampires creating Embraced, Third Traditions, Creation Rites, Allies, and the like and using said creations to slowly overwhelm. Due to the change to The Embrace, that will likely change in the future, at least somewhat. I otherwise have few biases about strategy except for a general distaste for decks based on complicated combat tactics.
Q7: Is there a difference between your casual play and tournament play? Only in one respect: I avoid the unproven in tournament play. Otherwise, I play for the same reasons and go for the same results either way.